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Prior to Oracle 10g, adjusting optimizer parameters was the only way to compensate for sample
size issues with dbms_stats. As of 10g, the use of dbms_stats.gather_system_stats and
Oracle Training improved sampling within dbms_stats had made adjustments to these parameters far less
Oracle Tips important. Ceteris Parabus, always adjust CBO statistics before adjusting optimizer parms. For
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more details on optimizer parameters, see my latest book "Oracle Tuning: The Definitive
Reference".
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As a review, the CBO gathers information from many sources, and he has the lofty goal of using
DBA-provided metadata to always make the "best" execution plan decision:
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SQL Server Oracle uses data from many sources to make an execution plan
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Software Support Let's examine the following areas of CBO statistics and see how to gather top-quality statistics
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for the CBO and how to create an appropriate CBO environment for your database.
Development
Getting top-quality statistics for the CBO. The choices of executions plans made by the CBO
Implementation
are only as good as the statistics available to it. The old-fashioned analyze table and
dbms_utility methods for generating CBO statistics are obsolete and somewhat dangerous to
SQL performance. As we may know, the CBO uses object statistics to choose the best execution
Consulting Staff plan for all SQL statements.
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The dbms_stats utility does a far better job in estimating statistics, especially for large
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partitioned tables, and the better statistics result in faster SQL execution plans. Here is a sample
execution of dbms_stats with the OPTIONS clause:
 exec dbms_stats.gather_schema_stats( -
ownname => 'SCOTT', -
options => 'GATHER AUTO', -
estimate_percent => dbms_stats.auto_sample_size, -
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method_opt => 'for all columns size repeat', -
degree => 34 -
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Ion
Here is another dbms_stats example that creates histograms on all indexes columns:
Excel-DB
BEGIN
dbms_stats.gather_schema_stats(
Don Burleson Blog ownname=>'TPCC',
METHOD_OPT=>'FOR ALL INDEXED COLUMNS SIZE SKEWONLY',
CASCADE=>TRUE,
ESTIMATE_PERCENT=>100);
END;
/

There are several values for the OPTIONS parameter that we need to know about:

GATHER_ reanalyzes the whole schema

GATHER EMPTY_ only analyzes tables that have no existing statistics

GATHER STALE_ only reanalyzes tables with more than 10 percent modifications
(inserts, updates, deletes)

GATHER AUTO_ will reanalyze objects that currently have no statistics and objects with
stale statistics. Using GATHER AUTO is like combining GATHER STALE and GATHER
EMPTY.

Note that both GATHER STALE and GATHER AUTO require monitoring. If you issue the ALTER
TABLE XXX MONITORING command, Oracle tracks changed tables with the
dba_tab_modifications view. Below we see that the exact number of inserts, updates and
deletes are tracked since the last analysis of statistics:

SQL> desc dba_tab_modifications;

Name Type
--------------------------------
TABLE_OWNER VARCHAR2(30)
TABLE_NAME VARCHAR2(30)
PARTITION_NAME VARCHAR2(30)
SUBPARTITION_NAME VARCHAR2(30)
INSERTS NUMBER
UPDATES NUMBER
DELETES NUMBER
TIMESTAMP DATE
TRUNCATED VARCHAR2(3)

The most interesting of these options is the GATHER STALE option. Because all statistics will
become stale quickly in a robust OLTP database, we must remember the rule for GATHER
STALE is > 10% row change (based on num_rows at statistics collection time). Hence, almost
every table except read-only tables will be reanalyzed with the GATHER STALE option, making
the GATHER STALE option best for systems that are largely read-only. For example, if only
five percent of the database tables get significant updates, then only five percent of the
tables will be reanalyzed with the GATHER STALE option.

Automating sample size with dbms_stats.The better the quality of the statistics, the better the
job that the CBO will do when determining your execution plans. Unfortunately, doing a
complete analysis on a large database could take days, and most shops must sample your
database to get CBO statistics. The goal is to take a large enough sample of the database to
provide top-quality data for the CBO.

Now that we see how the dbms_stats option works, let's see how to specify an adequate
sample size for dbms_stats.

In earlier releases, the DBA had to guess what percentage of the database provided the best
sample size and sometimes under-analyzed the schema. Starting with Oracle9i Database, the
estimate_percent argument is a great way to allow Oracle's dbms_stats to automatically
estimate the "best" percentage of a segment to sample when gathering statistics:
estimate_percent => dbms_stats.auto_sample_size

Andrew Holdsworth of Oracle Corporation notes that dbms_stats is essential to good SQL
performance, and it should always be used before adjusting any of the Oracle optimizer
initialization parameters:
"The payback from good statistics management and execution plans will exceed any benefit of
init.ora tuning by orders of magnitude"

Export Import statistics with dbms_stats

You can use the Oracle dbms_stats and export utilities to migrate schema statistics from your PROD instance to your
TEST instance, so that your developers will be able to do more-realistic execution-plan tuning of new SQL before it's
migrated into PROD. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Create the stats_table:

exec dbms_stats.create_stat_table(ownname => 'SYS', stattab => 'prod_stats', - >

tblspace => 'SYSTEM');

Step 2: Gather the statistics with gather_system_stats. In this dbms_stats example, we compute histograms on all
indexed columns:

DBMS_STATS.gather_schema_stats(
ownname=>'<schema>',
estimate_percent=>dbms_stats.auto_sample_size
cascade=>TRUE,
method_opt=>'FOR ALL COLUMNS SIZE AUTO')

Step 3: Export the stats to the prod_stats table using export_system_stats::

exec dbms_stats.export_system_stats(ownname => 'SYS', stattab =>

'prod_stats');

Step 4: Export the stats to the prod_stats table using exp:

exp scott/tiger file=prod_stats.dmp log=stats.log tables=prod_stats

rows=yes

Step 5: FTP to the production server:

ftp -i prodserv . . .

Step 6: Import the stats from the prod_stats.dmp table using the import (imp) utility:

imp scott/tiger file=prod_stats.dmp log=stats.log tables=prod_stats

rows=yes

Step 7: We can now use the import_system_stats procedure in Oracle dbms_stats to overlay the existing CBO
statistics from the smaller TEST instance:

dbms_stats.import_system_stats('STATS_TO_MOVE');

Arup Nanda has a great article on extended statistics with dbms_stats, specialty histogram
analysis using function-based columnar data:

Next, re-gather statistics on the table and collect the extended statistics on the expression
upper(cust_name).
begin
dbms_stats.gather_table_stats (
ownname => 'ARUP',
tabname => 'CUSTOMERS',
method_opt => 'for all columns size skewonly for columns (upper(cust_name))'
);
end;

Alternatively you can define the column group as part of the gather statistics command.
You do that by placing these columns in the method_opt parameter of the gather_table_stats
procedure in dbms_stats as shown below:
begin
dbms_stats.gather_table_stats (
ownname => 'ARUP',
tabname => 'BOOKINGS',
estimate_percent=> 100,
method_opt => 'FOR ALL COLUMNS SIZE SKEWONLY FOR COLUMNS(HOTEL_ID,RATE_CATEGORY)',
cascade => true
For more details, see these notes on 11g extended optimizer statistics.

This advice from the Oracle Real-world tuning group:

>> Will dbms_stats someday detect sub-optimal table join orders from a workload, and
create appropriate histograms?

If histograms exist, then they were either automatically created because the columns met the
criteria defined on page 10-11 of the document, or manually created. If they were created
automatically, then is probable they will influence the plan for the better.

Sub-optimal join orders are generally the result of poor cardinality estimates. Histograms are
designed to help with cardinality estimates where data skew exists.

>> Keeping statistics: What is the current "official" policy regarding statistics retention?
The old CW was that the DBA should collect a deep, representative sample, and keep it,
only re-analyzing when it's "a difference that makes a difference"?

I don't know if there is an "official" policy per se, but I will offer my professional opinion based
on experience. Start with the dbms_stats defaults. Modify as necessary based on plan
performance. Use dynamic sampling and/or dbms_sqltune or hints/outlines where appropriate
(probably in that order). Understand the problem before attempting solutions.

There are a couple of cases that I would be mindful of:

1) Experience has shown that poor plans can be a result of under estimated NDV with skewed
data and DBMS_STATS.AUTO_SAMPLE_SIZE (or too small of a sample). This has been
addressed/enhanced in 11g. In 10g it requires choosing a fixed sample size that yields an
accurate enough NDV to get the optimal plan(s). The sample size will vary case by case as it is
data dependent.

2) Low/High value issues on recently populated data, specifically with partitioned tables. If the
partition granule size is small (say daily or smaller) the default 10% stale might be too little. It
may be best to gather partition stats immediately after loading, or set them manually. It's better
to have stats that are an over estimate on the number of rows/values than an under estimate. For
example, its better to have a hash join on a small set of data than a nested loops on a large set.

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See my related dbms_stats notes:

Oracle dbms_stats optimizer statistics

dbms_stats.gather_system_stats and SQL optimizer behavior

Oracle histogram analysis with dbms_stats

dbms_stats.gather_fixed_objects_stats tips

Oracle CBO optimizer statistics dbms_stats histograms

How often to re analyze with dbms_stats?

Oracle 11g dbms_stats enhancements

Oracle 10g New Features: Changes to dbms_stats

Achieve faster SQL performance with DBMS_STATS

Oracle histogram analysis with dbms_stats

Oracle CBO optimizer statistics dbms_stats histograms

Oracle dbms_stats optimizer statistics

dbms_stats.gather_system_stats and SQL optimizer behavior

Oracle Data Warehouse Procedures in DBMS_STATS

Hypercharge SQL with dbms_stats.gather_system_stats

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